Railway Herald
An unidentified all blue Class 47/4 passes through the approach lights for Runway 13 at Prestwick Airport on Friday 28th September 1984 with a train of air conditioned Mark 2 coaches. This service ran from Glasgow Central Station to Stranraer Harbour and back utilising the seated coaching stock from the overnight Anglo - Scottish sleeping car services that would otherwise have been stabled during the day in Polmadie Carriage Sidings. At this time there were very few regular loco hauled passenger services on the Ayrshire Coast route and this one had recently replaced the short lived Mark 1 formed 'Sou-Wester Express'. 30 years later virtually the same picture could still be taken from this bridge. Overhead infrastructure shields the track but everything else looks the same. The razor wire topped fence on the left side of the photo is still there as this forms the boundary of the Prestwick Airport fuel delivery site currently served by Colas Class 56 or 66 hauled aviation fuel services from Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth.
Bob Woolnough
